Steve James is the Sunday Telegraph's cricket columnist. He also writes on rugby. He played cricket for Glamorgan and England but is just as proud to have represented Lydney and Gloucestershire at rugby.

It's going to be 3-0

The contest just won’t come. England are all over India yet again. To put the opposition in and bowl them out for just 224 is a success. Then to finish the day on 84-0 is simply a triumph.

It goes without saying that England ’s seamers were superb. James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan shared the wickets- and while that was little surprise on a slow, green seamer- they bowled well to do so.

Of course, you could say that India got away from England after being 111-7, and that England bowled too short when Praveen Kumar arrived at that point, but it was about time Mahendra Singh Dhoni played the sort of innings he is renowned for. It wasn’t really a Test innings as such, but circumstances dictated that he counter-attacked, and he did that beautifully.

It was lucky he did, because without his 77 England might have been ahead already. His colleagues were undone by one absolute pearler (Bresnan to Rahul Dravid, as it was angled in and then nipped away to hit off stump), one decent ball (Broad to Sachin Tendulkar, who pushed at it a little to be caught at third slip), and a plethora of indifferent shots.

England benefited from two successful reviews; the first when Virender Sehwag tried to leave his first ball and gloved Broad, and then when Kumar hooked at Bresnan. Maybe there will come a day when technology is so good that both batsmen might walk. As it was, they both looked a little silly as they waited, knowing full well they were out.

There was a frustrating period when Dhoni was batting with Ishant Sharma, when Andrew Strauss set very defensive fields to his opposite number to give him a single. It is easily criticised, but almost every captain does it. And it was vindicated in the end because Strauss, who’d always kept himself at slip, took the catch to dismiss India ’s danger man.

Strauss and Cook both looked good in the final session. This looks a blameless pitch now, and India ’s attack looked toothless. This is exactly the type of surface on which their lack of pace is horribly exposed.

There appears no way out for India . Three-nil it will be, unless rain intervenes.